Pressure
by bobblychicken
Summary: The roles get reversed as Blade experiences a little mishap and Dusty is there to pull him out of it, but that's just the beginning. Uncomfortable silences and awkwardness abound as the two now have to survive each others company until they can safely get back to base, and Blade deigns to turn away from his painful past in favor of taking the time to see what's right in front him.
1. Lightning Strikes

*GAAASP!*

Red eyelids flew open as a gulp of air was sucked in. His vision was foggy and off-angle; he could hardly discern the wooden arches of the mold-caked ceiling and the demon eyes of little creatures that hissed at them from dark corners. Groans and whines are heard from somewhere and everywhere as they echo far and between; it isn't until the ringing in his head is depleted and his hearing is unmuffled that Blade Ranger realizes the noises are his own.

He freezes, holding his breath. They're his. Blade gave his rotor blades a bit of a shake before folding them neatly back behind him, as was his custom if he was ever indoors.

 _"Where am I?"_

Blade tilted his nose up a bit, blinking, trying to glean as much information about his whereabouts as his eyesight could gather in the strain of his sudden blindness.

 _"Blade... just give yourself a chance to be happy..."_

His eyes snapped wide open. The blur in his vision soon defogs itself. _Nick?_ It's in his head. He could hear it pulsing and buzzing around.

 _"I'm beggin' ya... Please don't take it with you..."_

Blade shut his eyes tight and seemed to shrink in on himself.

"Blade _(Blade!)_... I'm begging you...""

The, "…I'm begging you," suddenly sounded like it was coming from the right of him, as if a ghost had flung itself across the room. His eyes wildly followed the voice's location, and there next to him was a little red and white airplane, asleep and shivering.

"…You…" - was how he identified him, mumbling under his breath before closing his eyes again, the ache in his body making him grind his teeth.

After he peeled an eye open, he looked around to a little window that was being lashed at by rain and wind. He was alive. That much was apparent. But how did he end up here?

As if on cue, the images flashed back into his mind; the air crackling and growing hot all around him, and not long afterward being engulfed in a blinding flash of light and sent plummeting to the ground below. Him slowly struggling up with his rotor blades somehow miraculously intact with tree branches all stuck in them, full of cramp and pain as a horrified Dusty trembled and stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief.

 _"... Bl- Blade?"_

"So _he_ pulled me out of that." Blade sighed.

Blade's rotors twitched as a flash of lighting blazed through the window and lit the rotted-out wooden hangar. The air was musky and damp. He squinted over to the window once more. The sky thundered and the wind blustered; the storm was throwing a bad-to-worse tantrum. Dusty sneezed in sync with the last boom of thunder. The rain's shadows danced on his body as he snuggled deeper into himself. Blade watched him through a sideways glance before staring back ahead.

He ground his teeth together until they ached. He couldn't run out and battle the storm like he could a fire, and, as much as he lied to himself that he had the will-power to, could not leave the chevron-adorned racer alone and defenseless anyway. Blade Ranger's past forced him to carry a sin-repenting code of his own, beyond what he'd already taken on as a firefighter, and his pacts were as solid as the glares on his face.

* * *

An hour later, Dusty blinked his eyes awake. He paused in the middle of his yawning at the sight of a red helicopter hunkered down right beside him. He was a breath away from crying out in surprise, but was able to catch himself when the flashbacks of a certain Blazin' Blade Ranger nearly being blasted into oblivion hit him at full force.

"…Blade?" Dusty hoarsened out.

It was too much strain to bring his voice any louder, or any braver for that matter. Blade's rotors twitched a bit at the sound of his voice, and those eyes of his, the ones that sent a chill through Dusty's body for their iciness when they didn't blink, flitted open.

"…. Do you feel alright, Blade?"

Dusty moved around in front of Blade's face, who's expression didn't change.

"I'm fine."

His voice was like a shadow; low-keyed, husky, and nearly inaudible. Yet he still sounded vulnerable, too. _Huh, vulnerable?_ Dusty thought idly. Well, with or without that questionable vulnerability, it was a voice he simply wasn't used to. Its smooth, baritone accent was deep enough to vibrate the molecules in the ozone, and was always a stale deterrent to chip your intimidated glance at. Even with the obvious hint that he was ignoring him right now, Dusty smiled, despite how tight and dry he was in the mouth.

"Well that's a relief," Dusty sighed, "I thought you were gonna die for sure, at first…"

Blade let his rotor blades fully unfold, stretching them before folding them back again, and Dusty, fascinated, tilted his body a bit to the side. The temptation to forget who they belonged to and try to reach up to nose one of them made him mentally bop himself over his canopy.

"Well, don't worry yourself too much," Blade grumbled; his decision to suddenly speak making Dusty jump. "Gonna take a lot more than a little lightning or hypothermia to kill me."

"You sure about that?" And Dusty was embarrassed by how shy and quiet he sounded, but talking to Blade was still such a bizarre exchange of conversation. Their voices, they...they just weren't in tune. "You were hyperventilating on and off..."

Blade slowly turned toward him. Dusty didn't breathe in the same way Blade didn't blink, and the suspense was killing him. Blade broke it.

"...How long has it been?"

His voice rasped like something was scratching at the walls of his throat. Its tone was weak and craggy, dying even. That bolt of lightning had fried him good alright.

"...Huh? How long what? How long have we been trapped in a drippy hangar, or how long were you hyperventilating?"

"Since we've been in the hangar." Blade asked louder, the embarrassment of his weakened state stirring into self-conscious anger.

"Oh..."

Blade waited. Dusty cleared his throat. Blades rotors ruffled slightly.

"Uh, I don't really know. Hours I guess." Dusty yawned.

The raze of light in Blade's blue eyes disturbed him; it was difficult to tell whether it were soft, hard, violent, or contemplating. Either way, his stare took effect. The silence stepped in again when Dusty didn't ask for it. He wasn't fond of long breaks and pauses in between conversations, or the intensifying, possibly confused-stuck-between-infuriated stare he was getting from Blade. The anti-social air from the second party never discouraged Dusty Crophopper, of all chatter-boxes, to pause in the middle or end of a chat. Though, as quiet as Blade was, his air hung like a heavy weight of bricks on top of natural gravity, and it silenced him into intimidation. He wasn't scared of him, at least he thought he wasn't. He was just awkward with him, and couldn't understand why. He wasn't the kind of person to be shut up so easily, and though Blade's sometimes corrosive energy was overwhelming, he should be no exception. Dusty's eyes widened and he leaned back when he realized the red helicopter had not stripped his gaze from him.

"S...Stop looking at me like that. It's...it's rude to stare, you know!"

On a Dusty-basis, he'd say that with a bit more attitude, but this time, his throat was trembling and had failed to sound tough. The trademark cleft in Blade's brow scrunched in more, making the frown more of an insulted scowl. He closed his eyes, raising up higher on his wheels before swinging away from Dusty. Dusty, however, couldn't quite cotton on to why he was moving away from him with a seemingly ruder mannerism, but because of their awkward connection, held back from shooting off on him.

Then Blade began coughing. Just one or two little ones that slowly grew in magnitude and frequency. One cough after another expectorated out of Blade until all of the sudden he was forced to the ground.

"Blade?" Dusty sat still, torn between going to his aid or keeping his distance. "Are you... okay?"

Once he got the courage to take part in the latter, with him attempting to brace up against his side, Blade spun away from him and used the hangar's wall for support instead of him. He began hacking and spitting up a dark, oily fluid and didn't stop for a while, and Dusty clenched tighter and tighter into himself with each smat that hit the floor. He thought he might be sick, but not from the image of the sickly, blackish brown fluid coming up, but from the image of Blade in agony. The hemming and hawing slowed, but he was still harrumphing every now and then, putting Dusty's caring sensitivity on edge. He said not a word, and waited for him to confirm himself that he was okay.

"...You... pulled me in this weather?"

Blade remained turned away from him; only the thunderstorm destroying the forest outside the window had the privilege of seeing his expression now. Dusty tilted a bit at the way he said it; the cuteness of the action not entirely missed.

"Pushed, pulled. Of course I did. How else did you get here?"

Blade Ranger glanced sideways over at him, and Dusty was up high onto his landing gear, hoping he'd say something so he could talk more and encourage him to be himself again. Blade's eye seemed to consider him and perhaps respect the attention he craved, but then just like that, he veered away back around to the window. Dusty sagged back down again.

Blade was miles away from him. Their worlds didn't touch, and their connection was blank. It was neither friendly, hateful, or even 'other.' Dusty was the type who made roots, relationships and connections with anyone whether one-sided or love/hate, and though he had a root she shared with Blade, they did not twine together, and it made him feel awkward, insecure, and mildly unsure of him. The dilemmas in their current state of affairs is what made this so, for he had been sure of the subtle chemistry that had quietly sprang up between the two after his accident during his first year at the Piston Peak Air Attack base.

"Hmm..."

Blade didn't turn. Dusty could smell him from the short distance between the two; he'd taken an unconscious whiff when he'd sighed and sank down into his landing gear earlier. Wet bark, pine needles, the soil, moss, his own body heat making all the smells musty and mix with his own scent.

"... Blade?" Dusty gave one final attempt.

He never made a sound. Not one. His expression never changed; he hardly even blinked. He only watched as Dusty moved away from him and lowered himself to the ground to try and get some sleep, because, in all this time of his staring,

 _...What could I have said?_

* * *

Holy CRAP dude, that was hard. I've never written anything for Blade EVAR. But I'm gonna post it anyway. *shields head from the coming onslaught of bricks*

 _AN: Dusty is in his firefighter livery for this, but in his usual landing gear because I'm lazy and have two minutes until I literally need to be in bed for work tomorrow._


	2. The Thunder Builds

_All that damned racket.._.

Blade's eyes slide open, at first to blink at the ceiling and nurse the ringing in his head, and then to look down his nose to glare at the termite-eaten floor. He was crabby and groggy, his eyes were sore, he was seeing double, he was in horrible need of a re-paint or a wash at the very least, and all that ruckus outside was starting to give him a migraine. He closed his eyes tight and re-opened them, blinking; he couldn't see any color after the third blink - just a gray and white haze of shapes and squiggles, but his fourth put him out of his colorblindness. The Earth was swimming in gold, and the sunlight was exploding through the windows. The storm had vanished, colors were everywhere, and Dusty?

Right there, partially underneath him and fast asleep. In his exhaustion, Blade had completely forgotten carefully positioning his much larger body over Dusty's to protect it from the cold and damp the night before. He wasn't appalled, but being so caught off guard triggered the immediate reaction to get away. Blade gently got up off of him and turned toward the hangar doors. Wasting the time to glance back once or twice at the snoring plane at his wheels, he tilted his nose down and walked into the sunbeams that bled into the window. Once he'd opened the door and let the light in, he hungrily digested the paradise that lay outside it.

The balsa thrush perched themselves in the trees to greet him, _"Good morning! Good morning!"_ They shook the water off themselves and tweeted psalms of, _"The Storm is gone! The Storm is gone! All is well! The Storm is gone!"_ and cuddled together to relish in their glee.

Deciding to just take a little stroll around, Blade basked in the sunlight and soaked in everything around him like a sponge. Everything was so green and pure after a good storm like that; it unnerved him. To him, if not all firefighters, peace was a lie with a warm smile.

Body still tight with tension, he watched as the different bugs courted, chased, danced and waltzed. Emerald-green leaves dripped with the last of rain's going. Miles and miles of buds bloomed into blossoms across the fields, welcoming him. He stood there, a lone shadow in a colorful meadow of nature's riches, feeling entirely in place and yet somewhat out of place. He stood in the wind as minutes passed him by, gradually skinning off his defensive exterior and letting himself trust the Earth for a moment. Glancing from side to side to verify that no one was watching, Blade's half-lidded eyes finally closed the rest of the way. He craned up, set his nose against the wind, and breathed in. That same wind whipped at his rotor blades and stung at his singed paneling. He felt as if there was no gravity compressing him here.

But then, just then, something extremely shiny darted past his prow and snapped him into a defensive stance. The speck zig-zagged all around him; left, right, up, down, backwards and forwards. It circled and circled and circled him until it had him scrambling to clip the unidentified object with his rotor blades and protect himself from its "attacks," but all his strife had him backing over the edge and falling into pond that had undoubtedly ambushed him. Blade cursed, sneered, sniffed and spat, drenched in humiliation as water leaked off his rotor blades and nose. The tiny blur stopped and hovered before him as it beat its wings and zipped from here to there and there to here in bejeweled brilliance. It was a god-damned Cartier hummingbird

"..Ugh..."

Damn Mother Nature.

* * *

Back inside the abandoned hangar, Dusty Crophopper was slowly waking up. He yawned and then ended up doing a double-take on the empty spot beside him.

"Oh no! Blade's disappeared!"

"I'm right in front of you." came the voice of the disappeared one.

Dusty jumped, frantically trying to expel the worried expression he had on before, then he tilted at the helicopter that was now trying to nonchalantly lean up against the door frame with water still dripping off of his body.

"Hey, why are you all wet? Did you go for a swim?"

Blade's eye twitched; Chrysler, the memory... He came further into the hangar and briefly kicked his engines up, spinning his rotors and spraying Dusty and everything else in the process.

"No."

Dusty giggled. Blade paused and stared at him as if he had just embarrassed himself again.

"...And may I ask what it is you find so tickling?"

"...You're reacting to me more," Dusty replied, his sky-blue eyes shining. "Oh, don't worry! It's a good thing!"

While Dusty giggled and Blade turned away, he found himself angrily flustered that he couldn't find a better response than, "...Hmph.." It hadn't been very long between them, and already the bubbly little airplane was flying circles around him with his naivete. He couldn't keep up, but he _wanted_ to. The thought scared the holy living hell out of him.

Blade feared that he may long for his presence with a needy, psychological cling all because Dusty resembled a life he'd lived before, the person that he'd loved before. He might become drawn to him, because of his invincible spirit, his welcoming kindness, his insight of things - because he almost seemed like an acceptable candidate, a substitution, even. Blade examined Dusty with a confused frown that he gave right back. He made the comparisons, the contrasts, and the conclusions. No; he was not on Nick's level. Not even close, as no one would ever be, and yet in the same light, Dusty had something... - and Blade squinted to see it -...more.

"...S-Sooo uuh... Do you think you're ready to get out of here and back to base?" Dusty stammered, not liking the way Blade was looking at him.

Blade turned away, his expression varying through the stages of annoyance and defensiveness, but then a different emotion filtered back into him once he heard his name called.

"... Blade?"

There. He did it again. A glare sharpened at the corners of Blade's eyes.

"I want to know why you keep saying my name that way." he asked at length.

Dusty checked at the question and the random suddenness with which it was asked.

"…What way? When?"

"Earlier."

"Earlier?" Dusty's eyes slid up and to the right thoughtfully. "How did I say it earlier?"

"...THAT way," Blade snarled at how he couldn't place his wordings into one sentence. He sounded like he was accusing Dusty of murder. "The way..." Blade's eyes widened, then narrowed again, and before Dusty could interpret the meaning behind the angered emotion scalding him, he looked to the right of him to save his dignity. "The way that _he_ used to say it."

Dusty meeped, flinching slightly. _The way that he used to say it..._ He felt his engine throb. Blade continued with his hard stare, just the barest traces of pain flitting across it before he closed his eyes and turned toward the hangar doors.

"Let's go."

"Blade, I..." Dusty hesitated, not knowing what to say.

"Forget about it," Blade sighed, knowing that Dusty probably wasn't going to drop it as he wished he would. "It's nothing to concern yourself about."

"Of course it should! I mean, that's what friends are supposed to do! Care! And we tell each other what's on the others mind... ," Dusty started counting off. "I'm just trying to help."

"Why?"

"…Because that's just how I am," Dusty stomped a wheel for emphasis. "I know what happened was really awful, but what's so wrong about me offering friendship to you?"

Blade peeked back at Dusty reluctantly. He tilted his body to the side with a hopeful little smile on his face. He had let this kid into him more than he had realized. Then Dusty suddenly beamed with an excitement that made Blade flinch.

"I know you're not as rough around the edges as you act! I know once upon a time you used to smile and be happy too, just like everyone else!"

Blade's body tensed up as Dusty moved closer to his face, still smiling that hundred-watt smile.

"You're just a grumpy ol' Bearcat with a thorn stuck in his tire, that's all! That's why you attack anyone who steps into your territory..." Dusty stared long and hard to interpret and read what might be going on in Blade's head. "What do you think?"

Soft skies and cold ice acknowledged one another. Blade steeled his composure and closed eyes to finally jerk away from him, giving off a "thanks, but no thanks" vibe. Huh? Was he _pouting_ a little, too? Dusty gave him a disappointed frown, but perked right back up. His reactions lifted his spirits, despite what kinds of reactions they were.

"But that's okay, I'd expect something like that from you." Dusty chuckled and poked him in the side with his nose.

For some reason, he had turned blissful again in the blink of Blade's eyes, but those blinking eyes of his darkened.

"I'm not warning you to keep your charity to yourself because I am 'cold at heart'. I warn you because you don't know what you're getting yourself into. Curiosity killed that Bearcat, you know."

And Blade didn't want that for anyone who tried to get too close. But then Dusty twirled around in his own waltz to face him.

"And kindness mended the Blade!"

Dusty looked up at him with that sunny smile and extravagant happiness that twinkled in his eyes. The moment was enough to have Blade staring, dumbstruck; he was being sucked into remembering what he lacked and once had, and boy did Dusty have it.

"Come on," Dusty chirped, "Let's blow this joint. Everybody's probably worried sick about us!"

Blade just looked on, confused, disgusted by that confusion, and horrified by how Dusty's naive and silly nature tied his tongue into that confusion. It was profane how his presence made him soft. He started up his engines, gingerly lifting off, and pointed his nose toward home.


	3. The Dam Breaks

Back at the Piston Peak Air Attack base, the sky broke open once again and rain pounded into the ground and the roofs of the hangars. Dusty was caught out in it and, hating rain just about more than anything, went rushing for the nearest hangar. Unfortunately, Blade had the misfortune of also having his hangar doors open so that he could hear the rain when if finally broke.

Blade was still struggling to get used to this little airplane. Having been stripped away from that world for so long, it was more than difficult to fall back into feeling natural with someone of a mindset that he had befriended over so many years ago. Talking to Dusty Crophopper coherently seemed humiliatingly impossible for him, yet Blade felt a sort of potential within him by being in this innocuous atmosphere of his. The potential for what? He wasn't going to think so deeply into it just yet.

But just then, Dusty bolted into the hangar, disturbing Blade from his thoughts and getting water everywhere. Then Dusty met an arctic blue stare and started, the two staring at each other for about thirty seconds of hearing one another breathe.

After a few more seconds of their staring contest, which ended with Dusty sticking his tongue out and Blade giving him a flat stare, Dusty rolled his eyes and went over to stand next to him in front of the window. Dusty shared another hard, one-sided staring contest with him sidewardly before relaxing and turning his gaze to the downpour outside.

"Do you think it'll be a storm like the one before?"

Blade didn't reply. It was like sitting next to a rock. The moment Dusty sighed and groaned however was the moment Blade showed some life. He rolled away from the window and Dusty.

"I don't know, do I look like a weather reporter to you?"

Blade turned back moved toward him, and though his eyes reeled back up to Dusty's in their usual stoicism, Dusty was back to square one of freezing up again.

 _"Why's he have to be so serious? Is he even breathing? Can he hear_ _ **me**_ _breathing? Would it kill him to_ _ **blink**_ _?"_

Blade was almost too intense for him to take. With Dusty almost straining up and Blade slightly tilted down, he could feel how powerful Blade was and how fragile he himself was. Dusty leaned away, but the single readjustment made their noses brush. He looked down and avoided anymore eye contact.

 _"That's better."_ but Blade's smirk shrunk off his mouth.

Blade's eyes - dark, alive, lonely, exhausted - lazied up and down Dusty's frame, then iced back up when it seemed that Dusty had steeled himself up again. And then suddenly Blade moved back, rather intimidated- and Dusty knew why. Exactly why.

"What is it with you?" Dusty continued to stare at the red helicopter, narrowing his eyes at him. "Why won't you let your barrier down?" As Dusty moved even closer, Blade stared at him, confused and penetrated as he continued in reverse. The red and white racer locked eyes with him. "…Just because your name is Blade doesn't mean you have to act like one!"

Dusty's sympathetic yet demanding demeanor made Blade tense.

"What, pray tell, are you reciting about now, Champ?"

Dusty moved in for the kill.

"You've got your guard up right now, even when there's not a fire burning for a million miles!"

Dusty showed no fear. The way he looked at him, with his face full of twitching nerves and his eyes thick with sympathy. The way Blade looked at Dusty, with his face full of control but his eyes complex with sadness. Both were breathing hard with desire. Blade's desire, to feel like the person Dusty was, one without hardship on their shoulders, one who knew what happiness and dreams were. Dusty's desire, to help him feel like that.

There were too many emotions in Dusty's eyes; too much overwhelming Blade all at once. His body locked up when he felt that uncommon feeling: fear. It was a gossip-able feat to scare Blazin' Blade Ranger. He wasn't one to be easily scared. But this tiny plane terrified him like a child afraid of the monsters in their closet. Monsters were imaginary, however. This wasn't his imagination, and oh how he wished it was. Dusty leaned up to nuzzle him, but Blade flinched away, even starting to shake a little. Dusty looked him deep in the eyes, the mouth, the face, and then said in a slightly offended way, "I'm not going to hurt you, Blade."

It was strange, but seeing that uncertainty in him made Dusty feel powerful. It made him warm, warmer than he'd ever been. He felt dominant, despite how he was the one having to almost strain up to look at him. He was in control of everything involving him and he knew it. Dusty's eyes - unnerved, enticed, insecure, intoxicated - sped up and down Blade's face, before he swallowed hard in spite of himself.

It was so very, very strange, and Dusty wanted to feed off of that advantage more than he already was. He knew how 'icky' it sounded, but that's how he felt. Dusty was also noticing this look Blade kept giving him. It was like an afraid sort of look, where he keeps glancing him up and down, looking from here to there, and then lastly to him- almost as if he felt threatened.

 _"Blade... I'm not threatening you."_ Dusty felt himself move closer and Blade move further away. " _For Chrysler's sake, stop moving!"_

"I promise..." Was he begging? "I promise I wont hurt you... I won't, honest." He just wanted to help. "That's the last thing I..."

Dusty was getting way too hot. The beginnings of a headache were taking shape and there was a twisting in his tank. Blade only watches him. His eyes seem to be going in and out of focus. His mouth is dropping open. He looks so fascinated, so unsure, so endangered. How could he think he would ever mistreat him, or anyone or anything else for that matter?

Dusty moves closer and closer, hoping that curiosity doesn't kill the Bearcat. Then Blade stops. He doesn't even move a single rotor blade. Dusty was even a little scared that he might take this chance to hurt him, but he still wanted to get even closer.

He wanted Blade to understand him, and for himself to understand Blade. To exchange their experiences and understand each other so that they could make this distress into a common-ground friendship. What was the harm in that? He just wanted to be his friend. More than anything, he felt like they both needed this friendship. It had always been in him to help types like this.

Blade's posture never changes; he never blinks, never stops frowning as Dusty gazes into his eyes. Eyes that keep playing tragic scenes on repeat, like a broken movie recorder. He could see the whole castle and moat between Blade and the rest of the world. He could never just leave him like this.

 _"If you keep punishing yourself, Blade, you'll... oh, no one deserves that. Absolutely no one."_

Dusty can feel Blade's breath on him, the soft, steady puffs tickling across his plating. His eyes look sad. Just flakes and glimpses of sadness on his irises. Endless little patterns of sorrowful memories. Dusty feels himself utter his name, like a prayer ready to be floundered in tears as he leans up to touch him.

He's seeing and hearing himself, but Dusty doesn't feel himself doing these things. He feels like he's just somebody in the audience. The blue that is Blade's eyes suddenly flicker up a firestorm in them, and Dusty flinches back slightly, being scolded by their cold-blooded, icy-tone to keep his distance, but he wasn't going to be gotten rid of so easily.

 _"You don't scare me, Blade, because I'm finally seeing you for what you are."_

Blade's gaze is diluted in bewilderment and disbelief melting into fear and warning like earlier. He may have stopped breathing. They may have both stopped breathing. Dusty's brow creased as if he were thinking about something serious, then he continued forward. The second his nose touches him, Blade shivers and forces himself not to pull away as Dusty stroked along the side of his body with his own. Blade turned slightly and watched Dusty's brow knot together in a way as if he were seeing something painful, his mouth set in a line.

"Dusty?" he finally spoke, his voice sounding different. Almost childlike, even.

"Terrible." Dusty barely breathed the word, not moving his eyes from where they were fixed.

He was staring at all of him, taking in all the scars that most never knew were there. Blade had never felt so exposed. Then Dusty kissed him. Not on the mouth. Not on the cheek. His lips met Blade's face in that place just next to the corner of his mouth. They lingered there for a moment, and Blade was very aware that if he turned just a little...

But he stayed stock-still. His eyes squeezed shut and he felt tears finally begin to fall. Dusty pulled back as Blade breathed in a shaking sob. Before he could speak Dusty gently jumped forward again and embraced him in the crook of his wing and nose, leaning up as he nuzzled into him.

In that moment, though it sounded absurd, especially to himself, Dusty became something magical to Blade. He had been heartbroken for so long, and then this flash of hope abruptly appears in his life in the form of an orange blur. For the last few minutes, he felt that everything was okay. Then, with the tingling sensation of the fear of the new, he leaned back into Dusty, and he suddenly realized that everything was the way it was supposed to be. He had finally found himself. The feeling was bright and epic, and he was overcome with a sense of everlasting peace.

Helicopter and plane drew away from each other. Dusty looked up at him with the warmest of smiles, and Blade smiled back with the softest expression that Dusty had ever seen on him. After a moment, Blade's eyes turned up and his expression changed as he noticed something up in the sky outside. Dusty's face scrunched up in confusion, and as he turned to the side and tilted to see what it was that Blade was looking at, his jaw dropped slightly. Turning fully around and venturing out of the hangar and on to Blade's helipad, Dusty's nose pointed up toward the sky, his eyes wide with wonder as the sky was suddenly beautifully clear and a meteor shower like nothing he'd ever seen rained across the starry heavens. Blade followed him out and stopped beside him, both looking up at the lights above, both knowing and feeling that all was right in the world where they were. It was a tranquil and grounding feeling, and it was all very new to him. Blade figured he could handle it.

Fin

* * *

Well there it is. It is done. It almost wasn't. There were a few times, the first right off the bat as soon I had gotten the rough outline together, where I went Oh my god this isn't going to work I can't do this! and almost scrapped it completely. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but the point is that I persevered! Hope you all enjoyed! Also, once again a reminder that Dusty is in the firefighter livery in this thing, but with his racing landing gear on.


End file.
